Boards

Strangeways is my favourite of the four, but weirdly contains none of my favourite Smiths tracks. Think it works best as a collection of songs, though, and some of the tracks seem lyrically poignant given they split up not long after, so for me, that.

Just ^this it lads, couldn't really give a shit about your general thoughts. Nobhead points on offer for sarcastic and/or dismissive mong posts.

No, not trying to get indie points, it genuinely is their best studio work. The sound of a band finally getting their chance and seizing it with both hands. Definitive versions of most of the songs that made up their debut album and Hatful of Hollow.

I always knew I loved them but had never really taken the time to pay much attention beyond the singles. January had me listening to the first album, February to Hatful of Hollow. It's March now and I'm on to Meat is Murder. Maybe the best start to any year in recent memory. What a band.

Hatful of Hollow isn't a 'Greatest Hits' album, selected from songs recorded over many years and previously released on other albums. I would agree that it would be slightly odd to compare an album like that to 'studio albums'.

In the case of Hatful though, the whole record was recorded over the space of about 14 months between early 1983 and mid 1984 in about 6 recording sessions at two or three different studios. In that respect it is not much different from lots of records we happily consider as 'studio albums'

To have written and recorded so many brilliant songs in such a short period is a towering achievement, probably one not matched by any band since.